Eight Million Stories in the NAKED CITY … Many of Them Uncredited (Part 3)

March 15, 2011

In my last two posts, I pointed out some of the many uncredited actors in the classic drama Naked City (1960-1963). There’s also a special case worth pointing out: that of Richard Castellano, the swarthy, rotund actor who was Oscar-nominated for Lovers and Other Strangers and played Clemenza in The Godfather.

Sometime in 1962, Castellano began working regularly as an extra on Naked City. Once you’ve learned to recognize his unmistakable features, you can spot Castellano in practically every third-season episode. Here are a few of his many guises:

Bartender (“Hold For Gloria Christmas,” with Herschel Bernardi in the foreground).

Waiter (“Idylls of a Running Back”).

Man in a subway station (“Go Fight City Hall”). Once you’ve keyed on Castellano, you’ll notice that he goes through the same ticket line twice in this scene.

Man on street (“Dust Devil on a Quiet Street”). Like any ambitious extra, he’s the only one looking up toward the camera.

Man with clipboard (“One, Two, Three, Rita Rakahowski”)

Bartender again (“Robin Hood and Clarence Darrow, They Went Out With the Bow and Arrow”) . . . .

. . . and finally, in that episode, rewarded with a close-up and a line (“Hey, what’s goin’ on? Take it easy!”)!

Finally, here’s an unexpected bonus. While I was capturing those screen shots, I stumbled by accident actross another well-known character actor, working as an uncredited extra in the background of the 1963 episode “The S.S. American Dream,” at least a year before his first official screen credit. See if you recognize the man standing on the stairs at left:

Here they are in the same shot, Castellano on the far left and Santos on the far right, two background players angling to get noticed behind the principals – and, against the odds, succeeding at it.

Makes you wonder how many other famous faces are lurking in the background of the Naked City . . . .

Postscript: Loyal reader David Moninger believes that the old lady in this shot (between Robert Duvall at left and an uncredited Audra Lindley, Three’s Company’s Mrs. Roper, at right) is Judith Lowry, better known as Phyllis‘s Mother Dexter. Judging from her credits, Lowry was New York-based during the sixties, so it’s certainly plausible. But since the elderly extra had no lines, her name doesn’t appear in the paperwork alongside the unbilled actors with speaking parts. Can anyone weigh in on whether or not this is Lowry?

4 Responses to “Eight Million Stories in the NAKED CITY … Many of Them Uncredited (Part 3)”

It’s definitely Judith Lowry. She would have been 72 at the time of this filming, but looked like a 90-year-old woman for 20 years prior to her death at 86. Her Mother Dexter character on “Phyllis” still makes me howl.